2023's Best Adventures from the Inside Line Newsletter

In our newsletter, The Inside Line (sign up here if you are not already a loyal reader), we put a lot of thought into the different stories, videos and links that we feature. We’re always trying to make each newsletter more popular than the last.

Over the year we choose 150-odd stories for the newsletter, and certain themes are clearly more popular than others. One type of story that always does well is trips – either trips that you can take, trips that others have taken or destinations to head to. It’s a little fix of escapism, which for many of us is the appeal of bikes in the first place. So while you’re not riding your bike, feast your imagination on these greatest hits.

First up is a modern example of mad dogs and Englishmen. In this case Errol Wright who, for reasons that he doesn’t go into, decided to ride around Mongolia. Not on an adventure bike, but on a 150cc hire bike. He’d also only just passed his CBT.

The appeal seems to be that he’s a fairly ordinary chap who throws himself into an adventure and comes out of the other side. With some honest moments in there, it’s the sort of armchair escapism that we sometimes need.

You don’t have to fly to China to get away from it all. You could actually head up the M6 to Cumbria. To Tebay services, in fact, “the service station from heaven”.

We were pleased this went down well because it ticks two boxes for us: close to home and a bit irreverent. Tebay is the only family-run services in the UK and supports local farmers and sells their produce. If you fancy a ride that doesn’t end up with chips on the seafront, maybe junction 38 of the M6 should be on your bucket list. 

At this point we were going to link to a website we featured called “Make my ride fun” but unfortunately it seems to have fallen into disrepair. It’s a shame because it managed to combine close to home and irreverent, in the meantime, you can have a browse of the Atlas Obscura map to find odd locations near you  (and around the world).

Many of our readers enjoy touring abroad and the article on the National Motor Museums of Europe might have inspired a few plans.

Beaulieu is the home representative and there are fantastic looking museums in France, Belgium, Italy and the Netherlands. It could make for an interesting round-trip if you threaded them all together. The Museo Nazionale Dell’automobile in Turin, Italy, is one of the top 50 museums in the world. And, of course, it’s where The Italian Job was set. What better reasons do you need to start planning?

Hopefully, these have given you the desire to plan something a bit different. If you have the wanderlust but not the planning lust, then you might want to try a Vertu Rideaway Tour. Join the Facebook group and you might find yourself signing up for some breathtaking riding around the Alps, all organised for you.

Also, If you have any inspiring suggestions then please share them with us on Facebook. We’d love to find out what you like and share it with the Vertu Motorcycle Club members.